MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Spain accepts Gibraltar phone code and travel documents

Telephone calls between Spain and Gibraltar have gone international, following the acceptance by Spain from this weekend of Gibraltar's international dialling code, reported the local press.

This means that callers from Spain now dial the 00350 prefix, which is Gibraltar's international and country code, always accepted by the rest of the world except Spain. Likewise calls from Gibraltar to Spain now go through the international 0034 route. Spain had long argued that recognition of the 350 country code for Gibraltar somehow was recognition of Gibraltar political independence, given the Spanish claim to Gibraltar's British sovereignty. However, tripartite talks between Britain, Spain and Gibraltar ended last September with recognition by Spain of the 00350 prefix for use for Gibraltar calls, with callers from Gibraltar dialling the Spanish international prefix. The arrangements are in operation from this weekend, with Spain also accepting roaming for mobile telephony. This follows a recent announcement from the Gibraltar government confirming that all identity cards and passports issued in Gibraltar are valid and will be recognised by Spanish Authorities. No. 6 Convent Place revealed that following technical discussions "the issues that have recently arisen relating to certain Gibraltar ID Cards and passports as travel documents to Spain have been resolved and clarified". "The Spanish Government will ensure that its immigration officials are fully informed. The British Authorities will provide specimens of all the documents concerned to facilitate familiarity." A spokesman for the Gibraltar Government said: "We welcome the resolution of these unsatisfactory recent developments. We hope that similar incidents will not recur, although inevitably isolated incidents may occur as a result of a mistake by an official somewhere. Indeed, such incidents sometimes also occur in the UK at British airports and border crossings".